According to Schatz, the Princeton Airport has numerous features that make it an ideal place to build and market homes with runway access.

The facility has better-than-average navigation systems that allow planes to land at night and in poor weather, a long and recently repaved runway, as well as deer fencing. It is naturally supported by good elevation and approaches.

Schatz said he’s already given a tour of the airport to one pilot who is considering relocating.

“I loosely ran the idea by her and she loved it, and thought a lot of other people would as well.”

CAO Cheryl Martens said the approximate 30-acres surrounding the airport are already properly zoned with airpark residential being a permitted use.

“If you are looking at one house per acre, that’s thirty homes.”

Schatz said he would expect, should the idea take off, the houses-with-hangers “would be higher-end homes.”

A direction for the plan has yet to be charted. Schatz said it might involve striking a deal with a developer to build the residential lots as a community, or parcelling and promoting the sale of individual lots.